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Dozens of women with Mormons Building Bridges showed up at the Utah Capitol in a snowstorm Thursday, bringing bouquets of flowers to thank legislators and urging them to adopt a nondiscrimination bill that would protect the state's LGBT community.

They wanted to recognize the lawmakers' "hard work and show our support for the bill, SB100," Bridges co-founder Erika Munson said in an interview.

The gay-friendly grass-roots group — formed to improve ties between the LDS and LGBT communities — has stayed out of the political fray over same-sex marriage, but has supported nondiscrimination efforts since the Utah-based faith endorsed Salt Lake City's 2009 ordinances barring housing and job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

"We only back legislation that the church supports," Munson said. "We are taking their lead on that."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not embraced SB100 specifically, but it did say in a recent high-profile news conference that it endorses any nondiscrimination bill as long as religious freedoms are safeguarded.

In her remarks Thursday at the Capitol, Munson quoted LDS leader Neill F. Marriott, a counselor in the church's Young Women's general presidency, who spoke at that news conference.

Marriott acknowledged "centuries of ​ridicule, persecution and even violence against homosexuals."

"Ultimately," Marriott said, "most of society recognized that such treatment was simply wrong, and that such basic human rights as securing a job or a place to live should not depend on a person's sexual orientation."

Munson organized the all-female rally, she said, "to highlight the strength and influence of Mormon women in their wards and families."

Their flower-giving gesture was respectful and civil, Munson said. "It was a great experience of Mormon women communicating with our legislators in a thoughtful, nonadversarial way."

Peggy Fletcher Stack